Wen-Sheng Chou

Hello everyone, I am Wen-Sheng Chou (周文生) from the Department of Transportation at Central Police University. I think I am here today because I happen to be executing a taxi-related project for the Transportation Institute of the MOTC, which naturally includes the Uber issue we are discussing today. That is my main purpose for attending today's meeting.

Today is mainly to listen to everyone's views. In past meetings, I often explained the situation first, because I have over 20 years of experience in this industry.

Among sharing economy topics, I'll mention two examples. One is the Green Carpooling Network for Taipei-New Taipei-Keelung seen online, encouraging private-car carpooling. But that website sitting there is miserable because usage is very low. What people worry about is safety and strangers sharing a car. But this carpooling concept is private car owners commuting to work allowing other passengers to carpool, so owner and passengers share together.

The second experience is carpooling from the MRT to Culture University on Yangmingshan. I am a taxi with 4 or 5 seats, or Wish vehicles where 6th or 7th passengers make it even cheaper, lowering passenger burden while still using convenient transport tools.

Regarding the business sector for domestic rental cars and sedans, I think: should some innovative services be introduced? In the sharing economy mentioned earlier, due to projects, I have also discussed problems here with several groups.

I have many students who told me about their usage experiences, even though I haven't used Uber myself.

My workplace is in Linkou. If I need a ride, I call a taxi fleet. In other words, Taipei is the city with the highest taxi density: Taiwan has 80,000 taxis, and Taipei alone has 50,000. Domestic taxi supply is very high, but concentrated in urban areas. You ask whether current technology is accepted by operators? Sorry, only 1/3 of people have joined; most existing drivers are traditional spot queuing and cruising for hails.

If you go to taxi queues at Taipei Main Station, the difference is night and day. Consumer business is: the fare I pay is the same fare, but the service level received has a huge gap.

If service is another choice: sometimes I have a speaking engagement and say I want to take a taxi, but the host says they will send a rental car for you, showing more respect. But students say riding Uber is the same concept as rental cars, but rental cars are more expensive, so there is market segmentation.

Today I am not standing on Uber's or taxis' side saying what should be done. I am merely sharing practical experience of unmetered illegal car sharing with everyone. In our future sharing economy, we should consider the passenger's experience during this vehicle journey.